Governors back lower toll hikes; Port Authority to vote today

Governor Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday agreed to a $1.50 toll hike on the Port Authority’s bridges and tunnels next month, followed by annual increases that would push some tolls up to $12.50 by 2015.

Top Port Authority commissioners said Thursday night that they supported the plan, which they were set to vote on this morning.

“While we did not want to see any toll increase, given the crisis facing the Port Authority and its finances, and the potential safety and economic risks to commuters and businesses, an increase cannot be avoided,” the governors wrote in a letter to the chairman and vice chairman of the Port Authority’s commissioners.

As part of their plan, Christie and Cuomo also called for a “stringent” audit of the authority’s finances and said $5 billion in cuts had been identified in the agency’s long-term capital plan.

The announcement comes two weeks after the Port Authority proposed higher toll increases — a $4 hike on bridges and tunnels next month and another $2 in 2014, and a $1 increase in PATH fares. The initial plan outraged motorists but drew support from

many trade unions whose members said it would create more construction jobs.

The governors called the proposal “a responsible alternative that balances the infrastructure needs of the region with toll and fare payers’ economic realities.”

It will allow completion of the World Trade Center and hundreds of other infrastructure projects and prevent a default by the authority or a credit downgrade, they said.

“These more affordable step increases will provide better predictability and stability for hardworking New Yorkers and New Jerseyans and preserve tens of thousands of jobs,” the governors wrote.

Christie and Cuomo said the commissioners also would have to approve and immediately begin a “comprehensive audit” that aims to reduce the size and cost of the authority’s 10-year capital plan. They also called for a “top to bottom management review of the authority’s finances and operations,” the letter said.

The two top commissioners of the Port Authority said Thursday night that they supported the plan, signaling its likely approval.

“In the past week, we have worked with Governors Christie and Cuomo to conclude a toll and fare proposal for the Port Authority. We support the proposal laid out today by the governors and will move this proposal to the board tomorrow,” Chairman David Samson and Vice Chairman Stanley Grayson said in a statement.

The Port Authority said it needed the money partly for a 10-year, $33 billion capital plan that would generate 167,000 jobs and pay for 240 infrastructure projects. It also said the tolls and fares would be used to continue construction of the $11 billion World Trade Center, install new suspension cables on the George Washington Bridge, replace the helix-shaped approach to the Lincoln Tunnel, and raise the Bayonne Bridge.

It was unclear Thursday night how projects would be affected by the scaled-back toll and fare plan.

Christie’s office declined to comment on the proposal other than releasing the letter.

In boosting tolls, the authority is tapping its most profitable facilities as a financial lifesaver. Other authority operations, such as the PATH system and the bus terminals, rely on toll revenue to cover their operating costs. Even before the proposed toll hikes, the bridges and tunnels were projected to bring in $459 million in net income this year, more than any group of facilities, according to the agency’s 2011 budget.

In all, the authority estimates 122 million vehicles will pay tolls to cross its six bridges and tunnels in 2011. The George Washington Bridge and the Lincoln and Holland tunnels handle the overwhelming majority of those trips: about 53 million, 21 million and 17 million, respectively.

More than one in five weekday drivers who cross the George Washington Bridge and the Lincoln and Holland tunnels is from Bergen County, according to agency data. And New Jersey motorists make up 52 percent of toll payers on those crossings, while New Yorkers make up 42 percent.

New Jersey voters opposed raising tolls, no matter what the economic conditions, 54 percent to 41 percent in a poll released by Quinnipiac University on Thursday. On Wednesday, Christie had told reporters that the hikes had more supporters than naysayers at a series of public meetings held by the Port Authority on Tuesday.

The hearings were flooded |with union members, dressed in orange T-shirts with the slogan “Port Authority = Jobs.” Most commuters who spoke at the meetings said they could not afford the hikes. The Port Authority was criticized for holding the meetings at times and at places that made it difficult for working commuters to attend.